County Championship, day three as it happened - Somerset win to regain top spot, Notts hit back
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Adam Whitty
BBC Radio Leicester commentator
Well, at least the husky coming on the pitch was funny.
We must start by giving credit to Somerset, whose bowling line-up in particular is magnificent. Their pace attack of Pretorius, Gregory, Ball and Overton is utterly relentless, helped by spinners Vaughan and Leach.
Overton, now on 49 wickets for the season, is outstanding.
For Blackbirds fans, the arrival finally of a opening partnership after years of searching will be the main takeaway here - Josh Thomas and Tom Lammonby hold real potential for the future.
They dominated this game, with Leicestershire playing poorly from the off.
Their much-changed bowling line-up was, in comparison to Somerset's, pretty ineffective, and their batters, on bowler-friendly wickets admittedly, have not fired as a unit in weeks.
They did not, as Alfonso Thomas, their head coach, said "give a good account of themselves" here.
Even worse though is the spectre of a 19-point relegation that could essentially relegate them. Chief executive Emma White and director of cricket Claude Henderson give evidence at a tribunal tomorrow after being charged with breaching pitch regulations against Glamorgan - we should find out next week if their fight against relegation will be decided on or off the pitch.
In case you were wondering about the situation at the top of Division One, Somerset's win at Leicester has taken their points total to 189, five ahead of Warwickshire, who won at Glamorgan yesterday.
Should Nottinghamshire beat Hampshire, they would earn 22 points and move above Warwickshire on 185. Defeat, though, would leave them on 169.
Durham's pursuit of wickets is halted two balls into Kasey Aldridge's second over as the umpires come together.
The floodlights are already on at Chester-le-Street, the light meters are out and the players are coming off.
We have a possible 29.4 more overs of cricket this evening, but this is surely going to shave a chunk off that.
Promotion may have to wait for another day.
Adam Thomas will face off seamer Sean Hunt to get the session started on seven not out.
Two slips and a short mid wicket in.
Mahipal Lomror is at the other end on 17.
Surrey had the better of the afternoon session with 50s from Ryan Patel and Ben Foakes - but Sussex fought back to oust both of them before the break.
Feels like an even contest. It might be a slightly truncated session with rain and poor light a possibility within the next two hours.
Plenty to hew on at New Road as Worcestershire followers contemplate the prospect of their fifth defeat of the season.
Brett D'Oliveira's 64 was the only significant score in another disappointing batting effort by the Pears, leaving Northants to score just 94 for victory.
Only 50 are now needed, with their openers still together - Ricardo Vasconcelos is 21 not out and Luke Procter has 16.
Victory will put them second in the table - at least until tomorrow, with Kent's game likely to go to a final day.
Here comes Kuldeep Yadav.
Mitch Killeen drives into the off side for no run.
He switches to the leg side and runs one to mid-wicket.
Kuldeep is round the wicket to Sam Cook - who defends from the crease.
Four close catchers in now. Bowled him! That's it!
Cook tries to defend and the ball clips the top of off stump.
Kuldeep finishes with a second innings 6-50!
Two wickets for Bess who also contributed a vital 80 not out.
Yorkshire's first innings win on this ground v Essex since 1992. They've been dominant for most of the game and have earned a huge chance of staying in the first division next summer.
A second innings 48 from Paul Walter and a first innings 50 from Lancashire loanee George Bell, but really not a lot for Essex to shout about.
They need a win or two to stay up in the last three championship rounds.
Dom Bess floats one up to Paul Walter who is across to sweep.
A decent LBW shout is turned down.
Walter lofts a ball leg side... A running Ben Cliff has it but the ball bounces out of his hands and bobbles over the rope for four.
Gone this time though!
Walter is forward for a wild swing, misses and he's stumped by Jonny Bairstow.
The end is nigh as Sam Cook comes in to bat.
The 50 is up for Leicestershire, which admittedly is little comfort in the grand scheme of things at Grace Road.
Nick Kelly remains resilient at the crease, there on one from 26 deliveries and digging in, having just worn one on the arm from Craig Overton, who then beat the edge a couple of deliveries later with a real beauty of a ball.
A first over of the innings for Matt Taylor and the left-armer only needs three balls to get into the wickets.
Marcus Harris is unsure about his off-stump and the Australia batter goes fishing and the ball is well pouched by Miles Hammond at third slip.
A third good catch from Hammond in the innings and Lancashire's two main batters are out with still another 193 runs needed.
Gloucestershire are well placed for back-to-back wins now.
This is a fascinating contest between JT Langridge and Rocky Flintoff.
The left-armer is keeping the batter honest and fancies his chances of a wicket, but when he is too full off the last ball, Flintoff handsomely drives for four.
He has 20 off 21 balls with all his runs coming in boundaries - a couple of glorious ones and a couple of streaky ones.
And from the next ball of Will Williams' over, a single for Marcus Harris brings up Lancashire's 50.
With the matches at lunch on day three, it's a good time to get the calculators out and look at a few scenarios.
All the key games in Division Two are in the third innings so we know the bonus-point scenarios for the sides in the promotion race.
Durham have collected four, Northants also have four but Kent only got three.
WIN - If Durham beat Middlesex and they currently have a 371-run lead, they will go up.
DRAW - Durham would collect 12 points for a draw. That would be enough if Northants fail to win or Kent lose.
LOSE - Even a defeat for Durham would not matter if Northants lose to Worcestershire.
Given we are on day three of game 12 in a 14-game season, it really is a matter of when, and not if, Durham are promoted.
A boundary to mid-wicket for Tom Taylor off Saif Zaib, but Worcestershire are only 47 ahead as the players go in for lunch at New Road.
The Pears added 81 runs during the morning but lost three wickets in the process - one each for Luke Procter, Ben Sanderson and Yuzi Chahal.
Brett D'Oliveira is playing a lone hand for the home side at the moment, and has 50 not out from 133 balls.
Northants will still be hopeful of wrapping this one up today and earning themselves a day off.
It really should be 4-2 and two wickets in two balls for JT Langridge!
The left-armer sends one across new batter Harry Singh, who goes for the drive and gets a massive edge.
It flies into the slip cordon where Ollie Price goes for it from second but he can't hang on.
It was a very catchable height and it may have been Ed Middleton's at first, but it is a big reprieve for Singh.
Martin Emmerson
BBC Radio Newcastle
We have just been treated to the sight of Graham Onions doing a spot of square leg umpiring, while Sue Redfern left the field for a quick break.
She's back now and he's received a standing ovation following his one over of officialdom.
Durham continue to build a big lead here, knowing victory this week will see them promoted.
Ben McKinney has 164 from 212 balls. Earlier this year he made 244 at Bristol and became the youngest double centurion at the club - at the age of 21 and 188 days.
I magine Durham will declare either around lunchtime, or early afternoon and back themselves to run through Middlesex today.
Hasan Mahmud has bowled brilliantly here. His figures this morning are 2-9 from six overs - and he might have had more wickets to his name.
Mahmud, in that most recent over, dislodged Martin Andersson's bails - but not before they had deflected off Chris Benjamin's keeping gloves - and then he forced the same batter to almost chop on.
Andersson, at the beginning of the next over, nails successive fours from the bowling of Khaled Ahmed.
Tidy from George Hill, conceding just a couple of singles in his first over of the day.
Kuldeep to continue from the Howard Stand End.
A short leg and a slip are in and George Bell nearly pops up a catch to Adam Lyth in that short leg position.
The ball drifts safely to backward point.
Somerset bring up their 200 in this second innings, as Tom Abell collects what is a fifth single off the over of Rehan Ahmed.
Abell is now on 34, Henry Nicholls is on 35 at the other end and they continue to turn the strike over with regularity.
The lead is now 406 for Somerset.
Adam Whitty
BBC Radio Leicester commentator
It was of course, Franklin D. Roosevelt who, presumably referencing a future Somerset Division One title 100 years ago, said "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself".
I have to say, watching Somerset as a neutral, the vibe I'm getting is that the only thing that will stop them winning a title is the fear they won't.
There are two big caveats to my point here. One is that Somerset possibly didn't enforce the follow-on because Lewis Gregory isn't completely fit (he bowled six overs in the first innings) - if so, I understand why, in a packed schedule, they decided to rest their attack.
Point two is I was made to feel like a cricketing extremist for being quite so strong on my view at the end of day two yesterday by journalistic colleagues - who don't feel as strongly as I do.
However - watching them, I got the sense that they are just so nervous. The chances of them winning this game as extremely high. Leicestershire, it seems to me, don't quite have the ability to compete with a much-changed team. Somerset have such a big lead and so much time that anything other than victory for the league leaders seems implausible.
However, title winners go for the jugular, they take risks and are bold. I am seeing a team scared to lose, to "throw it away" rather than confirm victory.
The decision to not enforce the follow-on suggested that to me, as did their slow batting yesterday. A team more experienced in winning would have flogged Leicestershire all over the place, and had the confidence to take them down in two days.
But I heard people saying perhaps they wanted to eat up overs to not give the hosts the chance to win. Really? That may not be true, but watching them, it felt possible.
It seems to me the only way they won't win both this, and probably the title, is by not being bold and aggressive. They might suck the energy out of their performance and display.
Somerset are a marvellous team, a joy to watch with such talent. I think they just need to believe they are winners. Perhaps then they will end this wait for a title triumph.
Division One
Leicestershire 157 v Somerset 363 & 166-3
Somerset lead by 372 with seven wickets standing
Nottinghamshire 377 v Hampshire 267-7
Hampshire trail by 110 with three wickets standing
Sussex 393 v Surrey
Yorkshire 390 v Essex 137-7
Essex trail by 253 with three wickets standing
Division Two
Derbyshire 300 & 100-1 v Kent 219
Derbyshire lead by 181 with nine wickets standing
Durham 252 & 204-2 v Middlesex 203
Durham lead by 253 with eight wickets standing
Lancashire 134 v Gloucestershire 212 & 118-8
Gloucestershire lead by 196 with two wickets standing
Worcestershire 200 & 55-3 v Northamptonshire 289
Worcestershire trail by 34 with seven wickets standing
---Wednesday result---
Glamorgan 69 & 65 v Warwickshire 391
Warwickshire won by an innings and 257 runs